Police probe possible twelfth sniper attack

A shooting at a restaurant in Virginia, USA, in which a 37-year-old man was injured is feared to be the latest in a string of sniper shootings in the Washington DC area.

Frederic Pleasants Jr, Ashland chief of police, said the victim was shot in the abdomen as he was walking to a car in the parking lot behind the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland at 8pm local time.

The victim is described as a traveller but police have not yet said where he is from. He was taken to hospital where he was undergoing surgery.

Police said the man's wife saw nothing, but some witnesses said they heard a shot coming from a wooded area at the edge of the parking lot. No bullet has been recovered and no one saw the shooter.

Maryland State Police Sergeant William Vogt told the Associated Press that troopers were on the lookout for a white van with a ladder rack and portions of the Interstate 95 were immediately shut down as police set up road blocks.

There have been a string of 11 shootings - nine of them fatal - in Washington and its suburbs in the states of Virginia and Maryland since October 2.

Although police said it was too early to say whether this was the 12th sniper shooting, the sniper task force was on the scene.

Ashland is around 70 miles south of Washington and about 35 miles south of Fredericksburg, where two previous shootings this month were linked to the sniper.

If this is the 12th sniper shooting, it would be the first time the sniper has attacked on a weekend and it also would follow the longest lull in between shootings as the break in the spree had stretched into a fifth day.

It would also be the furthest distance from the Washington, DC area that the sniper has yet strayed.

Before the shooting, police hunting the Washington serial sniper were believed to be on the verge of a major breakthrough as the investigation entered its fourth week.

FBI forensics experts are examining empty bullet shells found in a white van that may have been used by the attacker.

Authorities hope that ballistics tests, which should be completed tomorrow, will finally provide a crucial lead in what has become an increasingly frustrating case for police.

The hired vehicle was seized at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday night after a tip off from a cleaner at a rental company.

The sniper attacks have sparked fear across the normally quiet suburbs surrounding the US capital.

Despite a massive manhunt involving thousands of police and FBI agents, investigators still have no description of the attacker, no information about the type of weapon being used and are not even certain if he is working alone or as part of a team.

The randomness of the shootings, which have targeted people regardless of age, race or sex, have left many afraid to leave their front door.

"I know the odds of being shot are low, but it's like the lottery. It happens to somebody," said Ross Steidel, a 21-year-old golf professional, from Washington.

Countless sporting and other outdoor events have been cancelled in a collective response to the threat which locals say far surpasses the reaction to the September 11 attacks.

Schools remain on "lockdown", with pupils banned from going outside during playtime or PE lessons, and many cafes and restaurants have removed all outdoor seating.

Pizza restaurants have reported a surge in delivery requests apparently as people prefer to eat in than risk going out for food.

Four victims have been shot as they filled their cars at petrol stations prompting many forecourts to drape tarpaulin sheets in front of the pumps to prevent the sniper taking aim at motorists.

Washington Police have advised pedestrians to walk in zigzags to avoid becoming a target.

Computer programmer Erin Glassner, from Falls Church, Virginia, who regularly shops at the mall where FBI terrorism analyst Linda Franklin was killed last Monday, said she was frustrated by how long police were taking to crack the case.

"The cops seem to be chasing his shadow," she said during a weekend trip to the store where the latest shooting took place.

"They set up all these roadblocks and dragnets and put up all these pictures of white vans, but they don't seem to have even got close to catching him yet.

"All the time they're running around he's plotting to kill more people."

Fear of getting shot would not stop her going about her everyday business, she said.

"It does make me anxious every time I step outside, though. Often I'll run from my car to a shop or duck when I'm at gas station. I know I look stupid, but I'd rather be stupid than dead."

But others have criticised the panic that has gripped the area.

After an annual American football game and old pupils' reunion at a Virginia school was cancelled this weekend the parent of a pupil put an advert in the Washington Post reading: "Sorry, Sidwell Friends' School homecoming is cancelled due to paranoia and bad judgment."

Events organiser Steve Coleman, who was ordered by city authorities to indefinitely postpone a public film screening in a Washington park this weekend, said: "I don't understand it.

"We didn't shut down after September 11, and we've had hundreds of people killed every year in Washington by gunfire."

There have in fact been 18 largely unreported "traditional murders" in the Washington metropolitan area since the sniper attacks began.

Victims have included a 25-year-old congressional intern killed during a hijacking outside his north east Washington home, and a mother found stabbed in her apartment.

Meanwhile, over 600 journalists from around the world have descended on the small suburban Montgomery County police station which has led the investigation after the first wave of sniper shootings took place in the area.

Scores of tents and vans from media organisations now crowd the modest grounds of the police headquarters, as journalists wait for the daily briefings from investigators.

Relations between the terse police chief Charles Moose and reporters have become increasingly tense as the investigation has gone on.

Problems started when details about a Tarot card apparently left by the killer after he shot a 13-year-old boy as he was dropped at school were leaked to the press.

The card was inscribed: "Dear Policeman, I am God" and also told police not to reveal its existence to the public.

Since then Mr Moose has refused to comment on almost any aspect of the manhunt, repeatedly saying that this would be "inappropriate".

At a press briefing this weekend he explained: "Every time we release any information we run the risk of compromising the investigation."

On Friday, Matthew Dowdy, 37, of Falls Church, Virginia, was charged with making a false statement concerning the last sniper killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin at a shopping centre on Monday. Authorities said Mr Dowdy falsely described an olive-skinned man and a cream-coloured van with a burned-out taillight at the scene of one killing.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail. Mr Dowdy was ordered held without bail pending a hearing tomorrow.